The Rockingdown Mystery. Enid blyton
Diana didn’t like it.
“Well, I don’t much feel as if I want to explore that,” she said. “It would be full of spiders and creepy things and horrid noises and draughts from nowhere. A nasty spooky place.”
They were out of the grounds at last and came to the village. They stopped for an ice-cream at the little general stores.
“Ah—you’re the new people in Rockingdown Cottage,” said the old woman who served them. “That’s a nice old place. I remember old Lady Rockingdown going there when her son brought his wife home from Italy. Those were grand days—parties and balls and hunts and such goings-on! Now it’s all dead and done with.”
The children ate their ices and listened with interest. “Where did the family go, then?” asked Roger.
“Lady Rockingdown’s son was killed in a war, and his wife died of a broken heart,” said the old woman, remembering. “The place went to a cousin, but he never lived there. He just let it. Then it was taken over in the last war, and some kind of secret work was done there—we never knew what. Now that’s finished, of course—and the place has been empty ever since. Nobody wants it—it’s so big and cumbersome. Ah—but it was a fine place once—and many’s the time I’ve been up to it to help with a party!”
“We must go,” said Roger to Diana. “Else we shall be late for the train. Come on!”
He paid for the ices and they ran off to the station. They got there just as the train was coming in. They stood on the platform waiting for Snubby and Loony to appear from a carriage. Usually they both fell out together!
An old market-woman got down. A farmer and his wife appeared. But nobody else at all. The train gave itself a little shake, preparing to start off again. Roger ran all down it, looking into the carriages for Snubby. Had he fallen asleep?
There was no one in the carriages except another farmer and a young woman with a baby.
The train steamed off importantly, and its one porter went off to his dinner. There was no other train for two hours.
It took the children a little time to find this out, because there didn’t seem to be anyone else at the station once the porter had gone. No one in the tiny booking office. No one in the station-master’s room or in the waiting-room, which wasn’t much more than a cupboard.
“Blow Snubby! He’s missed the train,” said Diana. “Just like him! He might have phoned to say so—then we needn’t have fagged all the way to meet him!”
They at last found a time-table that told them what trains there were. It took Roger a good ten minutes to discover that there were no more trains till the afternoon.
He looked at the station clock which now said a quarter past one. “We’ve wasted nearly an hour here,” he said in disgust. “Messing about looking for Snubby and hunting for somebody to ask about trains and trying to find out what the time-table says. Come on—let’s go home. We’ll catch the bus and perhaps we shan’t be awfully late. Miss Pepper said she’d make lunch at one o’clock—we should be back by about half-past if we can get a bus.”
But there was no bus for an hour so they had to walk. The sun was hot and they were hungry and thirsty. Blow Snubby! What could have happened to him?
They arrived back at the cottage at two o’clock—and there, sitting at the table, looking very full indeed, was their cousin Snubby!
“Hallo!” he said. “You are late! Whatever happened to you?”
CHAPTER III
SNUBBY—AND LOONY
Diana and Roger had no wish to fling themselves joyfully on Snubby; but Loony flung himself on them so violently that he almost knocked Diana over. He appeared from under the table, barking madly, and threw himself at them.
“Hey—wait a bit!” said Roger, very pleased to see Loony. The spaniel licked him lavishly, whining joyfully. Miss Pepper looked crossly at them.
“Diana! Roger! You are very late.”
“Well!” said Diana indignantly. “Snubby wasn’t on the train—and we waited and waited, and tried to find out when the next train was. It wasn’t our fault!”
“We’ve had lunch already,” said Snubby. “I was so hungry I couldn’t wait.”
“Sit down, Roger and Diana,” said Miss Pepper. “Snubby, call Loony to you, for goodness’ sake!”
Roger and Diana sat down. Loony tore back to Snubby and began to fawn on him as if he too had been away for some time.
“Still the same old lunatic,” said Diana, holding out her plate for some cold meat-pie. “Snubby, what happened to you?”
“I suppose you were late for the train, and missed Snubby, and didn’t see him or Loony on the road,” said Miss Pepper. “I ought to have gone to meet him myself. I can’t think how you missed him.”
“They’re not very observant,” said Snubby, accepting another helping of tinned peaches and cream. “I mean—I could walk right past them with Loony, under their very noses and they wouldn’t see me.”
Diana looked at him scornfully. “Don’t be an idiot. You can’t make out you passed us and we didn’t see you.”
“Well, but what else could have happened?” said Miss Pepper. “Snubby, I will not have Loony fed at meal-times. If you give him any more titbits I shall say he’s to remain out of the room when we have a meal.”
“He’d only scratch the door down,” said Snubby. “As I said, my two cousins are not very observant, Miss Pepper. Fancy not even seeing Loony.”
Loony jumped up in excitement whenever his name was mentioned. Miss Pepper made a resolve that she would never mention his name at all—only refer to him as “the dog.” Oh dear—things were going to be twice as difficult with this mischievous boy and his excitable little dog.
“Snubby, you didn’t come by that train,” said Roger quietly. “What did you do? Go on—tell us, or we’ll never go to meet you again.”
“I got out at the station four miles before Rockingdown,” said Snubby. “The train had to wait three-quarters of an hour there for a connection—so out I got, hopped on to a bus and here I was at a quarter to one! Easy!”
“Oh, Snubby!” said Miss Pepper. “Why couldn’t you have said so before? It was so nice of your cousins to meet you—and all you did was to make them late for their lunch, and arrive cross and hot and hungry.”
Diana glared at Snubby. “He’s just the same horrid little boy,” she said to Roger, speaking as if Snubby wasn’t there. “Same old ginger hair, same old green eyes, same old freckles, same old snub-nose, and same old cheek. I’m sure I don’t know why we put up with him.”
“Well, I put up with you,” said Snubby, wrinkling his turned-up nose and grinning, so that his face appeared to be made of rubber, and his eyes almost disappeared under his sandy eyebrows. “Sorry to upset you, cousins. Honestly, I didn’t know you were going to meet me. I’m not used to kind attentions of that sort from you. Are we, Loony?”
Loony leapt up madly and pawed violently at Snubby’s knees, knocking his head against the table. He whined and yapped.
“Loony wants to go out,” said Snubby, who used Loony as an excuse whenever he wanted to go wandering off by himself. “Can we go, Miss Pepper?”
“Yes,” said Miss Pepper, thankful to be rid of them both. “Leave him outside in the garden when you come in again, and then go upstairs to help me to unpack your trunk. It came this morning.”
Diana and Roger finished their meal in peace. Roger grinned to himself. What an idiot Snubby was—but it would certainly liven things up a bit to have him there—and Loony too.